"New Games!"

I honestly thought I was making waaay too many learning activities up for Rachel.  This was supposed to be about providing merely supplemental material to her play activities.  However, yesterday afternoon I said, "Rachel, mommy put some new games in your game drawer.  Shall we play one?"

"YAY! NEW GAMES!"  She dashed over to the little plastic storage bin I'm using for her art supplies and "games" and we took out the game I had made in which she pulls out a little slip of paper with an image on it and then finds it in the book Goodnight Moon.  Well, this was popular.  We did six or seven of them, and then I suggested we save some for the next day.  "Ok, ...'nuther new game?" she said as she started rummaging around in the drawer.

She pulled out the little clock I made (with only the hour hand on it) and started turning the little arrow-hand and shouting out the numbers.  I slowed her down a bit and asked questions like, "What do we do at 7:00 in the morning?"  (wake up)  etc.  We went through a dozen questions like that and then got interrupted by something.

When David got home from the office in the late afternoon, he and she went downstairs to play.  However, she immediately suggested they play new games and said, "Be right back..."  and went up two flights of stairs, retrieved all the new games we had played, and brought them down for David to see.

David asked her to teach him how to play.  So, she dumped out all the little slips of paper with images on them and explained that we sort them.  Eh?  Ok, she started combining games we had played to create a new one.  David told me later she sorted them by color and by art style.  She would put all the clip art that was of a certain style together.  THEN, David suggested they play a new game.  He dealt the slips into two piles and then started a story by drawing one from his pile.  They proceeded to tell a story by adding slips of paper with clipart on them.  This is EXACTLY what I had envisioned happening with these activities.  They are merely a starting place and transform based on her leading and interest.

However, I am going to be challenged to come up with enough material. :)

I had planned to teach her "Hey Diddle, Diddle" this week.  She learned it yesterday....in addition to picking up half of a longer poem that was an accident.  Then, she sang Hot Cross Buns to me after only having heard it in the car two or three times last week.  (WTF??)

Yeah, public school is going to work so well for her.  (Please note sarcasm.)